Adria Sauceda, shown in childhood pictures, was raped and bludgeoned to death.

HUNTSVILLE — Strapped to the gurney in the death chamber Thursday, Humberto Leal Jr. used his last words to apologize to both his family and the family of the teen girl he killed.

"I have hurt a lot of people," Leal said. "Let this be final and be done. I take the full blame for this. I am sorry and forgive me, I am truly sorry."

The 38-year-old ended by saying, "One more thing: VivaMexico. VivaMexico.

"Ready warden. Let's get this show on the road."

He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.

The case of the Mexican national gained international attention because arresting authorities did not advise him of his right to contact his nation's consulate. Failing to do so violated the United Nations' Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, and Leal's advocates said, puts Americans held for offenses in foreign countries at risk.

Leal was sentenced to die for the May 1994 killing of Adria Sauceda, 16, whose nude body was found on a rural road near San Antonio. She had been bludgeoned with concrete.

The Mexican government, former American diplomats and the Obama administration joined in calling for a stay in the case.

Senator sought review

Earlier this week, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles turned down Leal's bid for a 180-day stay. Such a stay could have provided time for Congress to act on a bill introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D.-Vt, to conduct a federal review to determine if Leal's case had been hurt by his inability to contact the consulate. The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a bid by the Obama administration to spare his life, noting that it could not grant a stay to allow for the possible passage of the Leahy bill.

The Supreme Court noted that it could not grant a stay to allow for the possible passage of the Leahy bill. "Our task is to rule on what the law is, not what it might eventually be," the court ruled.

The court also discounted arguments that "grave international consequences" may follow Leal's execution.

"We have no authority to stay an execution in light of 'an appeal of the president' presenting free-ranging assertions of foreign policy consequences, when those assertions come unaccompanied by persuasive legal claim."

Witnessing his execution was his attorney Sandra Babcock, his sister and three friends.

The family of his victim wasn't present. Robert McClure, the man who prosecuted Leal in 1995, attended with a friend of the Sauceda family.

Before he died, Leal had spotted the prosecutor. He nodded in his direction and said, "Mr. McClure."

The prosecutor responded, "You remember me."

T-shirt burned in protest

After his execution, relatives of Leal who had gathered in Guadalupe, Mexico, burned a T-shirt with an image of the American flag in protest. Leal's uncle Alberto Rodriguez criticized the U.S. justice system and the Mexican government and said, "There is a God who makes us all pay."

Mexico's foreign ministry said in a statement that the government condemned Leal's execution and sent a note of protest to the U.S. State Department. The ministry also said Mexican ambassador Arturo Sarukhan attempted to contact Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who refused to speak on the phone.

The governor's office declined to comment on the execution Thursday.

Leal's case marks the second time in four years that Texas has executed a Mexican national despite presidential calls that his life be spared in order to honor the Vienna Convention.